SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy Rocket Launches Next Year

The launch of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket came under question recently following the troubles that the company faced recently but there doesn’t appear to have been much change in its launch timeframe. SpaceX has said that it’s going to launch the massive Falcon Heavy rocket in spring next year. The confirmation came from Lee Rosen, vice president of mission and launch operations at SpaceX, he revealed this at a conference this week in Pasadena.

Space News reports Rosen saying that “It’s going to be a great day when we launch [the Falcon Heavy], some time in the late April – early May timeframe.”

Falcon Heavy is massive by all standards, it’s slated to be the most powerful operational rocket in the world, being able to launch 115,000 pounds or 53,000 kg into low-Earth orbit. It comes quite close to the Saturn V rocket which was crucial in NASA’s Apollo missions to the moon.

SpaceX has first said that it would launch the rocket back in 2013 but the launch was delayed to 2015, another delay seemed imminent following the crash of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket in June this year.

The company says that the first launch will be a demonstration only and will be conducted in spring next year, with another launch scheduled for September 2016 for the Air Force which would launch around 37 satellites.